Kidnapped
by Cesah
Summary: Well, my dear cousin, you were supposedly murdered, and now I find out that you were alive all along? Well, you are a threat to me and my throne. To ensure you stay dead, I have taken the liberty to kidnap your daughter. She will live only if you do exactly what I say. From your beloved cousin and King, Aaron DeMoor.
1. Prologue

Prologue

He knows that he shouldn't be here. He knows that if he is caught in the queen's bedroom the night before her wedding that he will be executed. Even if it's against the queens will. He knows that anyone could have seen him sneaking through the halls to get to her room, but damn it, he had to see her. There must be some way she could call off the wedding, she's the queen for fucks sake!

He silently opened the door to her suite. Thrown haphazardly on the couch, taunting him, was her wedding dress. The dress she will wear when she walks down the aisle to meet David and not him. Damn it. It should be him. He didn't come all the way back to New York just to fall in love with the girl again and then have her taken away from him like that. His moment of self pity was interrupted when he looked up and saw her, standing and staring out her balcony window. She casually turned to look at him, with a slight smirk on her face.

"Well, do not just stand there Gregor, come in." Following her instructions, he went up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. She tensed momentarily, not expecting him to do that, before relaxing into his embrace.

"You should not be here Gregor," she whispered, "you know that once I marry David he will be in charge of my life and of Regalia. Right now your safe, because you are the Warrior. But I do not want him to have any type of vendetta against you."

"Trust me, I'll be fine," he said kissing her head.

"No Gregor, I do not think you will be fine. You know that there are those who hate you for coming back. They think you have ruined the Underland. They will be the ones influencing David, and he is such a spineless man, that anything that they say he will listen to! You know you should leave, but you are too selfish to do so! Leave! Do not stay here for me! Think of you sisters and your parents, how would they feel if you were killed? Do they even know that you-"

"Don't talk to me about them! You know that they don't know I'm here! But Luxa, I just can't stay away, you mean everything to me, and I wish you would just realize that I'm not going to abandon you to some loveless marriage!

Her gaze softened for a moment before she sighed. Her shoulders slumped and he knew that she was tired of their fights. That's all they seem to do now, fight. It's because she has already accepted that the marriage is inevitable, while he can't. _What am I doing?_ he thought, _It's the night before the marriage maybe all hope really is lost... No, the plan will work, it'll be risky, but it should work. Maybe I should give Luxa a bit of space, we still have some time before we would have to put the plan in action..._

"Do not leave." He turned around to face her. She looked so miserable with her head hung and her eyes brimming with tears. "Gregor I love you, but I am getting married tomorrow no matter what I do. It is pointless to even hope that we could call it off."

"What if we don't have to call it off?"

"What do you mean? If we have any hope of getting married, then I cannot get married tomorrow!"

"Don't worry about that Luxa, I've got a plan."

* * *

In David's opinion, Luxa need not be at the wedding, she just has to give her consent to get married to him and all will be well. He will finally have the throne, the Underland will no longer have to suffer under a female ruler, and he could finally do something about their gnawer problem. He never did like gnawers, they were pesky animals who were to fond of killing humans, but for some reason Luxa has a soft spot for them. She even bonded with the worst gnawer of them all, Ripred. Just the name sent shivers up his spine. He distinctly remembers the first time he met Ripred, the uncouth creature had his face buried in a bowl of shrimp in cream sauce. Apparently Luxa has tried to teach him manners, but the old gnawer will not listen. _Just shows how weak of a leader she is if she cannot even get her bond to behave for the important occasion of meeting her fiancé._ David tugged on his shirt sleeve and rolled his shoulders. _Time to get this over with…_

"Sire!" yelled his out of breath servant, "You must come to the Council meeting immediately! Luxa, Aurora, and the warrior Gregor are missing!"

"What?" shouted David, "Have they been kidnapped?"

"I do not know sire," sighed his servant, "I am not privy to that information. However, I do not think that the Council even knows the answer to that question."

David sighed, of all mornings for this to happen, it _had_ to be on his wedding day. "Well alright, tell the Council I will meet them in 15 minutes."

"Yes sir."

 _I cannot believe that the rats would be so bold as to kidnap her and the warrior on our wedding day,_ David thought, _Could they not have taken her a week later, when I'm already on the throne?_ Sighing, David got ready for the Council meeting.

* * *

"Well gentlemen, I believe we have come to an agreement. Luxa, Aurora, and the Warrior could not have simply vanished into thin air. They must have been murdered, and I am glad we all agree on how the killer is. Now if we can all-"

"Sorry if I am late," interrupted David striding into the hall. "My servant sadly informed me after the meeting started. Then you can imagine my distress at realizing my fiancée is missing and-"

"That is enough David. You are not needed here. Go."

"But it's _my_ fiancée who is missing. Now, since no family member of hers is sane enough to take the throne, I assume it will be my responsibility as her fiancé to-"

"And that is what we were just about to talk about. She does have an admittedly distant cousin who could inherit the throne…"

"But Victor, I thought he was not the sane. I heard that he was so brutal in the army his commander had no choice but to dishonourably discharge him? And did not Vikus forbid him from being mentioned to Luxa because he was afraid that he would try to influence her? What about someone like Howard? He is related to the Queen and he has a respectable job. The people will love him."

"Do you not understand? His viciousness is why he must inherit the throne. If we do not offer it to him, he will come rampaging into Regalia demanding it. We must offer it to him, or we could be putting our entire city in danger…"

 **AN: Welp. Here it is. I've had this idea in my head for the past 3 years or so, but I've finally decided to publish it now. Right as school is starting to get busy. Expect infrequent, possibly monthly, updates. Another warning, I haven't read the series in 4 years. If some things are inaccurate I'm sorry. I'm gonna try to see if I can read one of the books soonish to try and make this as accurate to the books as possible. Also, I meant to start publishing when I was closer to finishing the book, but instead I decided to publish it when I'm not even close to finishing chapter 1. Oops. I do however have everything planned out so that's good. Also this is my first book, so please excuse any formatting mistakes, and be as honest as possible when reviewing. Fair criticisms will only make the story better. Also, the rating might eventually be bumped up to an M. There won't be any sex scenes, but some other things might warrant the rating change. I'm not to sure yet.**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

His life now is painfully boring. But in his mind, that's the best life there can be. No giant animals he needs to fight, no princesses he needs to save, and no prophecy he needs to fulfill. Just a boring desk job with two kids and a wife. It's perfect.

For him, at least.

Luxa does occasionally miss her homeland. Arabella, their teenage daughter, often has trouble understanding why her mother is different than all the other mothers that she knows. And both Michael and Arabella have had trouble with bullying because of their unique complexion. But despite all of this, his family has gotten through it. Sure, there have been times where the kids, usually Arabella, ask about their mother's childhood, and about their skin condition. But Luxa and Gregor agreed long before either of their kids were born that they would only say that she has a unique form of albinism and because of that she was extremely sheltered growing up.

The Underland, and all its amazing creatures, is forbidden in their house. No mention of it, or any memorabilia from it can enter their house. That would bring up too many questions. This of course means Ares' claw had to go. Not that Gregor got rid of it, but he put it somewhere very special. He could never fully part with it, or the Underland in general. It was too special to him.

Despite their hasty escape from the Underland, both Gregor and Luxa love it. They love it so much, they still visit it every other weekend. However, they can't be seen by anyone. Only Aurora, who patiently waits every Saturday morning for her bond, can know that they still go down to the Underland. Of course, knowing Ripred he probably knows too, but is smart enough to be discrete about it.

During their visits, Aurora flies them around some of the more deserted parts of the Underland, before they land in a little camp that Gregor and Luxa created about 18 years ago. It's in the Dead Lands, only about 30 minutes away from the nearest entrance to the Underland. It's up on a cliff away from sight, and Aurora flies around the area frequently, so nothing will know it's there. That's where Aries claw is. And that's Luxa's only connection to her homeland.

And it's where they are going today.

They get off the subway and are heading towards the Gregor's parent's apartment where they will visit them for a bit before eventually heading down to the laundry room and down the grate to the Underland. It is a tight squeeze, especially for Gregor who has recently put on a few pounds, but the entry there is **better hidden** from both the Underland and the Overland than the one in Central Park. Of course, his parents don't know that they still go down to the Underland. They will never approve. Well, his mom won't at least. Gregor doesn't know how his dad would respond.

"Gregor, Luxa! Hurry in quick, it's cold out here," Grace says with a smile. It still surprises Gregor that his parents continue to live in this building. After all their adventures in the Underland, and the general dinginess of the place, Gregor thought that they would have used the extra money his father's salary eventually brought in to get a place somewhere else. Not that he's complaining.

As they walk into the small apartment, which admittedly looks much larger now that all of the kids have moved out, Gregor realizes something is off. His mother's smile looks forced, and she is walking hesitantly, for lack of a better word. Gregor and Luxa sit down at the kitchen table, but Grace stays standing. Her smile seems to be more of a grimace now.

"I can't believe you two would risk your lives doing something as foolish as continuing to go to _that_ place. I can't believe you would lie to us like that for the last 18 years Gregor!" said Grace with tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away and left the room. Gregor felt sick to his stomach. _How could she have found out? We were always so careful…_

"Your bat left this." She throws them the papers before leaving the room. On them are a series of lines, clearly from a claw dipped in ink.

 _Dear Luxa and Gregor,_

 _I'm sorry that I will not be able to come and get you for the foreseeable future. The Underland has been a difficult place recently. And while I'm not privy to everything that's happening since I'm still in hiding, I do not think it would be safe to bring you down here anymore. I recently went to the camp and saw it ransacked. Someone knows you're here._

 _Aurora._

* * *

Leaving the Underland is oddly easy. All Gregor and Luxa have to do is tell Aurora that they want to leave, and she is able to sneak them out. It is a long flight, but they are prepared for that. What isn't easy, however, is deciding what Aurora should do after they left. If she drops them off and heads back to Regalia, it will already be midday and Luxa's and Gregor's disappearance will already be discovered. They agreed that nobody will believe Aurora if she says that she doesn't know anything about their disappearance, so she can't go back. She also can't come up to the Overland. Despite how progressive the Overland has become with accepting other's differences, Gregor thinks that a giant talking bat might be pushing it a bit too far. So, the three of them sadly came to the conclusion that Aurora will have to stay in the Dead Lands and live the rest of her life in exile.

"I do not want leave you in exile Aurora. Is there not anything we can do to help you?" Luxa asks.

"I do not believe there is. Not, at least, without suspicion that I betrayed you. You know as well as I do Luxa that that could be deadly."

"So that's it then? We have condemned you to live the rest of your life in the Dead Lands?"

"Do not worry about me Luxa. I am just happy to be bonded to you. Fly you high Luxa. Fly you high Gregor." She flies away before Luxa can protest any further.

They stare at her in silence. Watching her slowly get farther away until they can't see her anymore. Only because of the light that shines through the rock covering the Overland Luxa could see. Otherwise it was pitch black. But that doesn't motivate them to move anymore. It is bittersweet for Gregor to be leaving the Underland. The place he escaped to for love, and the place where he is escaping from for love.

He admittedly only thought this far. He doesn't know what to do once he gets to the Overland. How cad they hide Luxa's odd skin, hair, and eye colour? How will they explain Luxa's lack of education, or her strange way of speaking? And where will they go? Should they live on the streets until he can find enough money to support them?

"I'm sorry Luxa. I didn't think this through. I shouldn't have pulled you away from you hom-"

"Gregor. It is fine. I am sure whatever life we have in the Overland will be better than any life I could have here without you."

"Luxa, you're used to a palace. I'm not even sure I can get you an apartment in the Overland. We'll have no money, no job, and you won't have an education. It will be almost impossible to have a life in the Overland. At least, in New York." This quiets them as the gravity of the situation they put themselves in sets in.

"It's not to late to turn back Luxa. Aurora can't be too far away, and I'm sure we could come up with some reason as to why you disappeared."

"No Gregor. I have made my decision. I will go with you to the Overland. I will stand by you no matter what happens."

"Okay. If you're sure." He pauses for a moment trying to desperately think of somewhere they could go. Winter in New York is cold. They can't live on the streets in those temperatures. It will also be a couple months until either he or Luxa turns 18, so he highly doubts they can stay in a shelter without CPS being called. That really only leaves one place to stay.

"We'll have to stay with my parents."

"Alright. They would not mind, would they?"

"Well, they wouldn't mind me staying. My mom might mind you staying with us. But she'll eventually get used to it." With that settled, Gregor reachs up and moves the rock away. He lets Luxa climb out first before following her. Then he closes the entrance off, and with it the chance to turn back to the Underland.

* * *

Neither of them has any money on them, so they can't pay for the subway. Instead they must walk most of the night in the wintery cold to get to his parent's house. They arrive at about 6 a.m. Gregor figures that his parents will probably be up by now, so he goes to the buzzer to call their apartment.

"Hello? Grace Campbell speaking."

"Hey mom. Is it alright if I come talk to you and dad about something?"

"Gregor! Why-um- of course- um- just come on up!" Gregor leads Luxa into the apartment building and up the stairs. He doesn't want to let everyone in the building know he was here by using the elevator. They approach his parent's door quickly before knocking.

"Gregor it's so… Oh, _she's_ here. Oh Gregor, don't tell me you got her pregnant!"

"No! Why would you think that?"

"Well what else am I supposed to think? First you tell us that you are going to Virginia to help your Uncle Thomas on the farm, then we find that it was all a lie, and you actually ran away! Now you're back here with that girl and you want to 'talk to us about something!'" Grace yells. James Campbell comes up behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"You're going to wake up everyone in this building with all your shouting," he says, "Come in you two. We'll talk about this inside." He led Grace in and sat at the table. Gregor and Luxa follow behind him, closing the door.

"Alright then you two. Time for some explanations."

Taking a deep breath Gregor says, "You knew I was having trouble adjusting to life up here. I kept having these dreams, and my rage was almost uncontrollable. The day before my 15th birthday I got into a fight when I found out that Larry was being bullied by some seniors. I just couldn't stop my rage. Next thing I know the guy was being taken away in an ambulance and I was restrained in a police car. I was told to never come back to the school. I hated myself for it. I didn't want to tell you about what happened, so I intercepted letters and phone calls from the school. But I had to find somewhere to go everyday. At first I would go to the library, or the museum, but eventually I went back to the Underland.

"There I met up with Ripred and he started taking me all over the Underland. It was then that my nightmares stopped. I made peace with myself. And I knew I couldn't stay in the Overland anymore. I had to get back to the Underland. Permanently. I knew you wouldn't let me go, so I made up the excuse about getting a letter from Uncle Thomas asking for help on the farm. And then I left."

Now Luxa decides it is her turn to speak. After all, the next part of the story deals with her people and their customs. "When Regalia received word that our Warrior was coming back to us we celebrated. We were having some trouble with a rebel gnawer group and hoped that Gregor would be able to scare them into submission. Do not worry, we treated him like a king. His presence alone was enough to scare the gnawer group away. He has had a respectable position as head of the guards in Regalia. We slowly fell more and more in love. One of the terms of my coronation was that I had to be married before my 18th birthday. Last week I was told that the council knew who they wanted me to marry, and that they were going to ask him soon. Both of us expected Gregor to be asked, however the council asked a man named David. We have tried everything we could have to stop it, but to no avail. I was supposed to get married today, but last night Gregor came up with the idea that we would run away."

"So you decided to come here I guess?" asks Grace.

"I'm sorry mom. It was the only place I could think of."

"Don't be sorry, we would never turn _you_ away son. But we need to set up some ground rules. First, no sleeping in the same bed. Second, you're going to be enrolled in school again young man. Third, no going back to the Underland ever again."

"Grace, don't you think you're being a bit harsh. It's her homeland," says Gregor's dad.

"Well if she's planning on living here, she better get used to not seeing her homeland again."

* * *

There is an uncomfortable silence in the apartment. Neither Gregor nor Luxa want to say anything that could possibly anger Grace who is standing at the head of the table silently fuming.

"Well? What do you two have to say for yourselves?"

"We didn't break any of your rules mom. We never went to the Underland while living with you."

"I'm pretty sure my rule was that you were never supposed to go to the Underland ever again! You clearly broke that!"

"We were adults when we moved out mom! You can't control us anymore!"

Gregor realizes that is the wrong thing to say instantly. His mother turns an unpleasant shade of red before finally spitting out, "That's what you think! Just wait until Arabella is an adult and she says the same thing to you!"

"And we'll respect her decision mom!"

"Well it's hard to respect your child's decision when they are doing something that will get them killed!"

"It wouldn't have gotten us killed mom! We were careful, and it wasn't even that dangerous anyway."

"You were too young Gregor to understand just how much the Underland ruined us! It absolutely destroyed our family, and almost killed us." Grace shakes her head. Gregor has never seen his mom look so disappointed him as she did this moment. "Just go Gregor. I don't want you here anymore."

Gregor and Luxa hastily leave the apartment and call a cab. It is getting late into the evening and the sky is turning a beautiful shade of violet. Gregor is worried about leaving his children for so long. Arabella has become more and more rebellious these past few months. She skips school, sneaks out, and recently, has been coming home drunk. Gregor knows that these are fairly normal things for teenagers to do, but that still doesn't mean that he isn't worried. He can only hope that by the time they get to their apartment, she will still be there.

And she is there. She is, admittedly, doing a perfect impression of Oscar the Grouch, and her room that she was supposed to clean was not doing anything to challenge that comparison.

"I thought I told you to clean your room?" asks Luxa.

"Well I was busy."

"Well you better not be busy this evening because you are going to do it right now," Luxa says while walking into the kitchen. "When I was your age, if I didn't clean my room, I wasn't allowed to leave it for a week."

"Yeah, but you had crazy parents, didn't you? In the 21st century, a messy room is normal."

"Arabella," Gregor interrupts, "go clean your room. You can join us for dinner when you're done."

But she doesn't join them for dinner. She is stubborn enough for Gregor and Luxa not to worry about her missing dinner. But when they don't even hear her getting ready for bed, they started to become concerned.

"Arabella, honey? Are you alright? I'm sorry about the fight, but you need to get ready for bed. It's a school night."

But there is no response. Again, not unusual for Arabella to do this, but it is still worrying.

"Luxa, let's just head to bed. We'll talk to her in the morning."

"Alright," Luxa says heading back to their room, "but I just cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong. Terribly wrong."

"It'll be alright. She's just in a huff because we made her clean her room. She'll be over it in the morning," Gregor says turning off the light.

The next morning Gregor wakes up to the smell of bacon and eggs being cooked on the stove. He stretches before leaving the bedroom and heading towards the kitchen. Michael comes running out of his bedroom and towards the kitchen almost crashing into Gregor. Luxa laughs at them before turning back to the stove and continuing to cook. The fight last night completely slips his mind.

"How is everyone this morning?" asks Gregor.

"I'm still worried about Arabella. She's been getting more sensitive recently. She never would have gotten angry at me asking her to clean her room a year ago. What happened Gregor? Did we do something wrong?"

"She's just getting more rebellious, that's all. It's nothing too serious. Remember, at her age I ran away from home to go live with you."

"I know, I just did not think that it would happen to her." Luxa turns around and faces the stove. Gregor can tell that it is worrying her a lot. And to be honest, it is worrying Gregor a lot too. It seems too sudden. Only since school has started up again has she been acting up. He can't help but wonder if something is going on at school.

"Hey mom, can you take me to school today?" asks Michael.

"Sure, I will take Arabella too. Gregor can you go and wake her up." He leaves the kitchen and goes down the hall towards Arabella's room. It's oddly quiet this morning. Usually he hears her alarm going off or hears her walking around the room getting ready, but today there is nothing.

"Arabella? Time to wake up honey."

Nothing.

"Arabella, you really need to wake up now sweetheart." Gregor hears a groan. It sounds like a sick polar bear has snuck into Arabella's room and decided that it is a good place to die. Gregor is now worried. What if she is sick? He tries the door, but it is locked.

"Arabella open up. Are you sick?" He hears another groan and a shuffling noise before a dishevelled Arabella opens the door.

"What dad? Can't you tell I'm sick?"

"I just want to know what's wrong honey," he says, leading her back into her room. Then, the smell hits him. It smells like alcohol. And on closer inspection, he sees some beer bottles tucked under her bed. "You've been drinking?"

"Why do you care? All you and mom seem to care about is how clean my room is."

Gregor sighs, "Why don't you go lay down for a bit? I need to go talk to your mother." Gregor leaves the room and stalks back down the hallway. He knows Luxa will not be happy about this. The Underland is much stricter about drinking than the Overland, and Luxa carried that attitude with her to the Overland.

"Where's Arabella?" asks Luxa while putting out the bacon and eggs.

"She's hungover."

"She's what? Does she think that being hungover will get her off of school? Because it will not!" And with that, Luxa storms out of the kitchen.

Gregor sighs and sits down to eat. He is _not_ looking forward to the fallout that will come from this. It's a Friday, which means that Arabella will want to go out and party tonight, but with a new fight with Luxa, Arabella might not come home this weekend. She is becoming more isolated from them, and that has Gregor worried.

Surprisingly, 5 minutes later Arabella and Luxa walk into the kitchen. Gregor hasn't heard any shouting, and Arabella isn't giving Luxa a death glare. In fact, both of them seem calm. Silent, actually.

"Do you want me to take you to school today Arabella?" Luxa asks, finally breaking the silence.

"No. I have a free period, so I'll get to school later."

After that very stilted conversation, Gregor gets ready for work and quickly leaves the house. He appreciates the tentative truce that Luxa and Arabella seem to have come to and doesn't want to stick around for when it inevitably comes to a very loud end.

Gregor's life as a lawyer, is fulfilling for him. No longer does he have to tap into his rager senses to take down the bad guy, now he can sue the shit out of them. Plus his firm gives out free donuts at lunch, which is nice, but is probably contributing to his recent weight gain. But the thing he loves most about being a lawyer is when a case surprises him. It rarely happens, but when it does, Gregor loves it.

The surprise Luxa gives him on his lunch break today, is not one that he wants.

She comes to his work, frantic, saying Arabella's school called, and she is not there.

"I checked our home, I checked her friend's houses, she's not in any of those places! I don't know where she could be!"

"Calm down Luxa. If we still don't know where she is tonight, we'll call the police. She's probably just mad at us and will turn up sooner or later."

"I just have a bad feeling about this Gregor."

When Gregor gets home from work Arabella is still missing. By dinner time Luxa and Gregor have been to all of her friend's houses and still, there is no sign of her. Right before deciding to call the police, Gregor suggests they check her bedroom one last time to see if there is anything that she left that could suggest where she is.

"I've found nothing, what about you?" asks Luxa.

"Nothing at all." He makes his way over to the window to look out at the setting sun. _I want my baby girl back,_ he thinks, _I don't like her being gone at night._ And the sun is shining directly into his eyes. He looks down for a moment and sees a small slip of paper, jammed into the window sill.

 _Well, my dear cousin, you were supposedly murdered, and now I find out that you were alive all along? Well, you are a threat to me and my throne. To ensure you stay dead, I have taken the liberty to kidnap your daughter. She will live only if you do exactly what I say. From your beloved cousin and King, Aaron DeMoor._

"Luxa? I think I found something!"

 **AN: Well that's another chapter done. Sorry for this being a month late. To be fair I finished it around the end of January but due to some family situations it took till now to finish editing it. I'm not super happy with it, but I beat it to a pulp in editing and I don't think I will ever be completely happy with it. Meh. Tell me what you think. Like I said in the prologue, it's my first book so be critical, it'll only help. I'll try to have the second chapter up this time next month. We'll see.**


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